Nineteen
Congressman Jack Coburn stood up behind his broad mahogany desk and held his hand out. Even when they were in college, he always looked like he was posing for a photo-op. Now, wearing a striped tie and a blue blazer, he looked even more so. With his neat side part, every hair on his head was perfectly in place. His smile filled the room with warmth. Like Logan, he had this way of looking right at you like you were the only person in the world.
Jack had been born to run for office. Logan used to joke that when Jack was born his parents wrapped him in an American flag instead of a blanket. And, as Logan looked at him, he knew there was a reason that Jack, despite being the youngest son in his family, was the one given the nod to run for the Congressional seat his father once held. The desk, which he stepped out from behind, had belonged to his father, and his father's father. It was enormous and ornate, and it took up nearly a quarter of his tiny office across the street from the Capitol Building. Behind it was a whole array of pictures of Jack's family over the years. There photos of his father shaking hands with LBJ, his grandfather standing next to Truman, and family shots from their compound on the Cape.
"With all your family's influence, I thought you'd be able to swing a better office than this," Logan said as he took Jack's extended hand. "Is this a converted closet or something?"
Jack tightened his grip on Logan's hand and held it as a signal of his seriousness. "It's all seniority. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can last a few years, I'll have one of the good offices, but you didn't come all the way down here to talk architecture." He let go of Logan's hand. "What's up?"
“I need help with something," Logan said, "and you're the only one who can help me."
Jack furrowed his brow and quickly looked him over. "What'd you do this time?"
"Nothing," Logan said. "This one isn't for me." Logan wondered how much he should tell Jack about Callie and the bill and Veronica Jones. He wondered if he should mention his father or any of what had happened, but instead he just waited for some kind of response from Jack.
"Logan Harris asking for a favor for someone else? I never thought I'd see the day."
"It's the environmental bill you co-sponsored, the one my father's been pushing for since he left the oil business, I need you to bring it up for a vote. I don't know much about it, but I know you've been holding it up, and if I have anything do to with that, I apologize."
Jack laughed. "You're here to lobby me?"
"Is that a problem?"
Jack shook his head. He was grinning like Logan had just told him the funniest joke in the world. "No, I just never thought I'd see the day."
"Well, I'm here, and I'm serious. Bring it to a vote. It's a good bill, and it will be good politics for you."
"Logan, I don't want to sound crass, but what the hell do you know about good politics? We go way back, and you're like a brother to me, but you've never cared about anyone's public perception."
"Just put it through," Logan said. He didn't know why he had thought this whole thing would be easy. This had been a dumb idea from the start.
"Logan, I wish I could help with this one, but I'm fighting my own battle. You of all people should know what I have to deal with." Jack sighed and let out a half-hearted laugh.
Logan raked through his mind to think of what Jack could have meant. You of all people. What the hell did Jack mean by that? There was no way that Logan had anything to do with this. For once, he was trying to solve a problem that wasn't his own doing, and now Jack was laying the blame at his feet? No, there must be something more to it than that. "I know I haven't exactly been a model citizen, but you have to believe me when I say this is your best interest too.”
Jack stood up and walked over to the window. “For years, I envied you, your freedom. While I was in law school, you were off partying, or finding yourself or whatever you want to call it. When I had to wake up early and shake hands and stick to the playbook my handlers laid out for me, you just got to do whatever you wished." Jack started to pace back and forth, his voice rising as he continued like he was venting years of built up frustration. "I'm not mad about it. It was a brilliant move on your part. You never gave a damn what anyone else wanted. And now, your father calls on you to bring me on board, and you just jump to? Did he find a way to cut you off?"
Logan jumped out of his seat. His head and his fists throbbed. He glared at Jack. He wanted to leap across the room and knock him to the ground. "You have no right to judge me or to tell me why I'm here. My father doesn't even know, and he's not going to."
Jack took a step back. He held his hands up and softened his tone. "I didn't mean it like that. You know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Logan said. “At least tell me why you shelved the bill.”
“Let’s just say that a few items on the list hit close to home, and some of my constituents have voiced concerns.” Jack spoke slowly and chose his words carefully.
What isn’t he saying? Logan wondered. Constituents. You of all people. Then it clicked. “Christ, this is about the windmills, isn’t it? Do you have wealthy donors who don’t want a couple of windmills ruining their water views?”
“I wouldn’t reduce them to simply ‘donors,’ but yeah, I’m getting some blowback about trying to push through something that would have an impact on the Cape. And it’s not a few, it’s over a hundred of them.”
“It’s your family, isn’t it?” Logan asked. He could picture Jack’s mother shaking her fist, threatening violence upon anyone who spoiled her pristine ocean view.
Jack shook his head. “You know I couldn’t admit it if it were.”
It was his family, his mother and his uncles who didn’t want their view spoiled.
“What if I could get concessions on that?”
“What are you proposing?” Jack asked.
“What if I could reduce the number and the size of the windmills?” Logan said.
“Logan, you can’t do that. You’re not involved in the process in any way. This is congress, not summer camp. I can’t take the windmills out. It would reek of self-interest.”
“Ok, what if I could give you political cover?” Logan asked.
“You’re asking me to pass a bill while only making the concessions that would help my family and the other millionaires who own houses with that view? I’m not seeing much political cover there. In fact, I’m seeing the basis of the next campaign against me. I can’t run as the guy who helped the environment if I can’t make a few sacrifices myself.”
“So make some sacrifices,” Logan said.
“I’m going to, but this takes time.”
“I don’t have time,” Logan said.
“Maybe it’s time you learned that the world doesn’t revolve around you, Logan.” Jack shook his head and rolled up his sleeves. “I’m trying to do good here, and it’s going to take months and months to win everyone over to the idea of wind power in Nantucket Sound.”
“What if my father’s nonprofit came back into the process and asked that the windmills be taken out of this law. The rest would still be there right? It would still have a positive impact.”
“That was a big part of the law. I don’t know if it’s worth passing without them.”
“So they can request that the windmill plan undergo further review,” Logan said. “They can do something like state their desire to mitigate any possible concerns about adverse environmental impact. Would that work?”
“Trust me when I say it was difficult for me to do this.” Jack still hadn’t said no. That was a positive sign. “What if you brought that idea back to your district? Could you spin it?”
“I’d need some support. That could work though. We split out the provisions for wind power and place them in another bill after the recess.”
“If I deliver the revised recommendation from my father’s nonprofit, can you deliver the rest?”
“I can try, but I need to know something first,” Jack said.
“Sure what is it?” Logan asked.
“Why are you doing this? You’ve never cared about any of this stuff, and then you show up out of nowhere, wheeling and dealing. What gives? I mean this in a good way, but this is not the Logan we’ve all come to love and tolerate.”
Logan tried to look serious, but he couldn’t hold back his grin. Jack was going to kill him when he heard his motivation. “Would you believe me if I told you this was about a girl?”
Jack slapped his hand over Logan’s back and burst into laughter. “I spoke too soon. Same old Logan. At least this time some good will come of it.”
“Hey, good things happen when I’m around. Remember when I set you up with Corinne Cantor?”
“She had a crush on you, Logan, and you wanted her off your hands,” Jack said. “Remember how poorly that relationship ended? She drove her father’s Aston Martin through one of my mother’s hedges after I broke it off.”
“Yeah, but that bush had it coming,” Logan said with a shrug.
Jack laughed. “Give me a few days and I’ll see what I can do. Just promise me you won’t try to set me up with anyone again.” He walked back to his desk and wrote himself a note. He added, “It’s good to see you during normal business hours.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. This is a one shot deal. I’ll give you the number for my father’s personal assistant, Donna. Have a member of your staff call as soon as I leave. Donna will get back to you within the hour. She’ll either set up a call between you and Hank or she’ll want to ask you a few questions first. That’s your decision. Personally, I’d talk directly with her. She’ll be able to do whatever you need. Give her your assurances that you’ve thought everything through and that you need only a few minor concessions. That way you won’t have to deal with my father. She’ll run it by him. He’ll hem and haw for a few hours before giving in. Then he’ll want to talk to you about a timeline for figuring out the windmills. You know him, always fascinated by big, complex machines. Congress just happens to have more moving parts than most. As soon as you make the decision, you’ll have their request, backed by at least a dozen of leading environmental groups..”
“Will you be in town long? Some of the guys from school are going to be here this weekend, and I’m sure they’d love to catch up and have a beer or two.”
Logan looked down at his watch. If Jack did go through with this, how much more time would he have with Callie? “I’d love to, but there’s something I have to do.”